N. Korea bars inspectors from plant

September 25, 2008

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- North Korea moved closer to restarting its nuclear arms program Wednesday, barring U.N. inspectors from its main plutonium reprocessing plant and announcing it will reactivate the facility that provided the material for its atomic test blast. The move fed fears about a resurgent nuclear North Korea, but there also is speculation it might be motivated by negotiating strategy. Pyongyang could use the year needed to restart its sole reprocessing plant to wrest more concessions from the U.S. and others seeking to end the atomic program. Still, coming amid reports leader Kim Jong Il suffered a stroke, the nuclear reversal is raising nervousness about a breakdown in the international attempt to coax the North out of its confrontational isolation -- a point addressed Wednesday by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. U.S. diplomats are talking with other nations involved in bargaining with the North at this week's meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. Any move by Pyongyang to restart its nuclear program "would only deepen its isolation," Rice warned. "We strongly urge the North to reconsider these steps and come back immediately into compliance with its obligations" under a disarmament-for-aid agreement reached in six-nation talks. Hours earlier, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that North Korean officials "informed the IAEA inspectors that they plan to introduce nuclear material to the reprocessing plant in one week's time." The statement from the Vienna-based U.N. agency said Deputy IAEA Director General Olli Heinonen told the IAEA board that after a request from North Korea, his inspectors removed all agency seals and surveillance equipment from the reprocessing plant and its immediate area. That work "was completed today," Heinonen said, according to the statement. It also said North Korea barred IAEA inspectors from further access to the Yongbyon nuclear complex.